


Blue Moon

by Sarahgraph



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dead Money DLC, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Honest Hearts DLC, Hurt/Comfort, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Lonesome Road DLC, Old World Blues DLC, PTSD symptoms, Possible Smut I haven't Decided Yet, Slow Build Sorta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:55:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23941930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarahgraph/pseuds/Sarahgraph
Summary: Every once in a while, Courier Six will tell Boone to head back to Novac because she needs to do something on her own, and he obliges. Every time she comes back, she's different, and Boone is left to wonder what exactly it is that she does on her little "Blue Moon Vacations" (This fic is mostly centered around the development of Boone and F!Courier's relationship around the events of the DLCs.)
Relationships: Craig Boone/Female Courier
Comments: 8
Kudos: 36





	1. Bled Money

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy folks! I'm definitely late to this party but I couldn't resist writing. Again, this fic is going to be made up of mini-fic chapters concerning what happens to Boone and the Courier before and after the DLCs. It's been a while since I've written, but I haven't felt motivated to until picking up this game! Thank you kindly for reading!
> 
> (Contains Spoilers for ALL DLCs for Fallout: New Vegas)
> 
> (Also note: If I decide to put smut in this, I'll be changing the rating to E and putting a note at the beginning of the chapter as well as changing tags, so don't worry about accidentally reading smut. The 'possible smut' tag is just for future reference.)

She was always going on these “Vacations.”

  
At least, that’s what she called them. Ever since Boone teamed up with Six, once in a blue moon, she’d tell him to disappear for a while. She told him that she had somewhere to go, and that he couldn’t go with her. Initially, Boone didn’t give two shits. His relationship with Six was just of convenience. Two folks in the ass-kicking business, doing what they do best. Problem-solvers. Coworkers, almost.

  
After a few days of being away, Boone questioned whether it was possible or not that she was a Legion spy, and that this “Vacation” was just a chance for her to report back to her higher ups. A very paranoid part of him tried desperately to convince himself that it was true. He just couldn’t seem to fully convince himself of that. Why would the Legion let a woman do anything of importance? If she was a spy, why was she riding along with Boone instead of hanging around NCR bases, where loads of men higher on the totem pole than Boone would gladly let someone as bright and cunning as Six destroy their bases from the inside out. If Six was a Legionairy, why was she constantly making Boone help her do stupid, tiny, helpful tasks? Why did she care about curing the Nightkin or helping that glowing Ghoul go on some sort of “Great Journey?”

  
Why did she care about who sold Carla?

  
It just didn’t add up.

  
So Boone didn’t say anything. The first time she left, he just went back to Novac and didn’t say anything to anybody. He slept, he picked up some shifts at the Dino, and when nobody was around, he drank. It was as fine a way to pass time as any.

  
One night, while he was sitting in the mouth of the Dino, looking through the scope of his rifle, he saw her, trudging her way back to Novac. She didn’t look good. She was visibly weary, shooting at the local beasts with reckless abandon, missing more than she normally does. Her hair was down and ragged. Even if he hadn’t seen her coming from miles away, he recognized her clumsy, loud footsteps coming up the metal stairs along the inner tract of Dinky. Somehow, she managed to make them clumsier and louder this time. She opened the door to the nest in the dinosaur's mouth and slammed it shut. Boone didn’t even have to look back.

  
“Six. How was the vacation?” Boone asked sardonically, still eyeing the night-purple Mojave in his scope.

  
“Shit.” She said. “It was shit.”

  
And that was it. It was shocking of her not to elaborate or ask questions about his wife or Bitter Springs or tactics or weapons or her favorite color or what his least favorite kind of gecko was. But that was it. It would have been refreshing had Boone not felt like she was only silent because something was not right. She sounded… defeated, almost. Boone wouldn’t have been able to believe that if she looked him in the eyes and said it. Six may have been a smooth talker, able to make friends with anyone, but honestly? She was a bitch. Once she had something in her sights, she didn’t let it go until it was dead. She was a natural disaster to anything standing in her way.

  
Six never got shaken, because she was the earthquake.

  
“Let’s go.” She said. Boone sat up, turning around to meet her eyes. It was worse than he thought. Her eyes had bags under them. Her skin was grey. Her hair was so ratted that it practically stood on end. Most notable of all was her neck. There was a bright red ring tracing its way around her neck, like someone had tried to strangle her.

  
“No.” Boone said. Six became indignant.

  
“What do you mean? Have you changed your mind?”

  
“No, but I won’t be heading out with you in that condition. Head back to the motel. Get some rest.”

  
“Boone, we gotta go. We got stuff to do. I don’t need to sl-”

  
“You’re not getting it, Six. If you don’t sleep, I don’t spot.” Boone looked over her again, almost horrified, but still stoic. “Christ, if you need it, take my room.” Boone fished around in his pocket, grabbing his keys and tossing them at Six, who barely caught them.

  
“Alright. Fine. Maybe some rest don’t sound so bad.”

  
Six left without another word. Boone sized up his sniper to the horizon once more, wondering what the hell had Six been doing for the last week or so.

In the morning, just when the sun began to paint the plains orange, Boone cleaned up his gear and headed down towards his room. Hopefully Six had managed to get in and get to bed without making a mess of things. When he was in sight of his door, he froze. The door to his room was cracked open slightly, and there was a small pool of blood leading inside. He hadn’t seen anyone or heard anything going on down here, so it seemed impossible. Even more impossible was the possibility that nobody else in Novac saw or heard an intruder. Instinctively, he took out his gun, and moved into the room, ready for the worst.

  
He only saw one person in the room once he got there, and that person was Six, snuggled underneath the covers which were brown with drying blood at the foot of the bed. After doing a double take, Boone noticed that the trail of blood leading into his room just lead past the door and up onto the bed where Six was sleeping. The amount of blood on the bed was concerning. The spot was about as large as Boon’s head concentrated about halfway down Six’s calf.

  
Boone quickly removed the sheet from Six’s legs to find sharp, deep holes peppering their way around her leg. Six was shaken awake by Boone manhandling her leg. The small gashes in her leg weren’t currently bleeding, but they were just barely healing, and could very easily open if Six moved too much.

  
“Holy shit. Six, what the fuck happened to your legs?” Boone asked, still inspecting her injuries.

  
“Bear traps.” Six groaned, half-asleep.

  
“A bear trap? Where the hell did you step in a bear trap?”

  
“Not trap. Traps. More than one. Both legs.” After close inspection, it did seem that Six had multiple rings of holes where metal had gone into her legs.

  
“Why didn’t you patch yourself up with Stimpacks, then?”

  
“Out.”

  
“What?”

  
“Out.”

  
“You are out of Stimpacks?”

  
“I have been. Out.”

  
Holy shit. Wherever she went, it threw her for a goddamned loop. Boone decided to let her sleep in. He rifled through his things and found a few extra Stimpacks for her to use. He left them on his nightstand in the unlikely case that Six got up by herself. He took some time of his own to sleep on the floor. It wasn’t comfortable, but he was in the NCR, so he had learned to sleep practically anywhere.

He didn’t know how long he was out for, but when he woke up, Six was still konked. He checked the time. She had been asleep for 16 hours total. It was clear that she needed it, but it was equally as clear that she wasn't’ going to be getting up by herself. Boone rolled his eyes. He had to play medic whenever he was with the NCR, helping out buddies who had gotten shot up or fucked up in the head. He didn’t mind it then. They were his brothers, his friends. Six was a very loud, sometimes unpredictable wanderer with an affinity for energy weapons. Not exactly a friend, even. So this was all to say, Boone did not appreciate the realization that he was going to have to help Six get on her feet. But, he did it all the same.

  
First, he rifled through his stuff to find something to eat. He grabbed her a Sunset Sarsaparilla and some sugar bombs with a small side of Rad-X. He put those on the nightstand next to the Stimpacks.

“Hey.”

  
Six grumbled in response and rolled over.

  
“Enough. You’ve slept for almost a full day. C’mon. I left some Stimpacks and breakfast on your nightstand. Eat up.

  
Six growled.

  
“Do it, Six. You were the one who wanted to leave yesterday.” Six mumbled in defeat and sat up. Wiping her eyes, she turned to the nightstand. After popping the Rad-X, she scarfed down the Sugar bombs and the Sarsaparilla like she hadn’t eaten in days. Who knows? Maybe she hadn’t. While she was using the Stimpacks, Boone had another look at her legs. Her wounds, while quickly healing, were caked in dirt, sand, and debris.

  
“You got pretty roughed up. Must have been one hell of a vacation. I’ll run some water for you to wash yourself off.” When Boone returned to the bedroom, Six was sitting herself up, the blood-stiffed sheet held tight across her chest. Before she stood up, she looked at Boone, as if they were communicating silently.

  
“What?” Boone asked. Six’s eyes darted from Boone to the wall behind him.

  
“Turn around.” Six said. “I’m going to go wash off and get dressed.” Boone rolled his eyes and turned towards the wall. Not long after, he heard a sound which he could only describe as Six swearing and his old lamp crashing to the ground, the bulb breaking. His head whipped back around. Six was laying on the floor next to the lamp and it’s broken lightbulb.

  
“Christ, Six.”

  
“I’m sorry. I tripped over the sheet and I fell and I think I hit my head because I’m dizzy. I won’t do it again.” Six tried getting up to walk to the bath once more.

  
“No.” Boone rushed to her side, swiftly picking her up like the comic books about the old-world fire-fighters. He stood up and froze, realizing that Six had made the tasteful decision to sleep in the nude, and that he was now carrying a naked woman for the first time in god knows how long. He coughed and grunted, as if to act like he didn’t even notice.

“Knowing your luck, you’d step on the glass, and then I’d have even more blood to clean up.” Six ’Uh-huh’-ed in agreement, as if she were also trying to ignore the unfortunate, incredibly naked elephant in the room. Boone set her in the water of the bath and exited rather quickly, shutting the old door to the bathroom so fast, the rusty hinges sounded like they were going to snap.

  
Boone made his way back over to the bed and sat down, putting his head in his hands. He took deep breaths. She was… nice. He was never going to tell her that. He would never mention it ever, not wanting to embarrass her, but aside from the bruises, bear trap incisions, neck welts, and severely matted hair, she… possessed good form. Her… chest was…

  
It was very clear that Boone was having trouble processing the event. For one, he still felt tremendous guilt about his wife, and seeing any other woman in any remotely sexual manner. Secondly, he always recognized Six as a woman, but not as a woman- like that. Before this, she was a stranger, a trade partner, a Legion-killing machine. Boone shook his head to get the thoughts out of his head, as a dog shakes its head to shed water. It’s not like he didn’t know that she had the parts, you know? He just wasn’t used to seeing her so

_Vulnerable._

Some time later, Six had regained her hold of herself and her ability to walk without being a hazard to herself and all nearby lighting fixtures.  
“Where to?” Boone asked six, back in her leather armor, pulling her thoroughly brushed hair into a ponytail.

  
“As sick and tired of mysteries as I am,” Boone saw her hand clench. “I just heard something on Radio New Vegas about some sort of weird hulking… things near the Hidden Valley. I’m thinking that it’s Deathclaws. That’s pretty close to a road, so I’m thinking we can go clear it out for, you know, fun and glory. I need something a little mindless.”

  
There she was. His Six. Fearless and gutsy and eager to put herself in the middle of the fire.

  
Boone felt his stomach drop again, as he noticed the phrasing he had used.

  
His Six.

  
He shook it off. It was just a way of saying that she was back to her normal self.

  
“Boone?” She asked, waiting for a response. Boone set his face to stone, as was the usual, though he couldn’t help smirking at Six’s apparent excitement at the thought of slaughtering a family of Deathclaws.

  
“Sounds as good as anything else.” Boone shrugged and threw his bag over his back.

  
“Such enthusiasm, Boone. I missed it.” Six said, slinging her own bag behind her and heading for the door.

Once they got to the Hidden Valley, the name seemed to make a lot of sense.

  
“What, is there just a perpetual sandstorm here? God, I can’t see a thing.” Six said. Regardless, she pushed forward.  
They shot down some bark scorpions, but didn’t see any hulking creatures of any sort. Six looked like she was about to call it quits when she practically ran into a bunker, covered in graffiti. Six was suddenly filled with hope for adventure or discovery. It was annoying, sometimes, especially when oftentimes, adventure and discovery often wanted to kill them first.

  
Six didn’t seem as excited when it turned out to be the Brother of Steel, who insisted that they both get rid of all of their weapons and strip down to their briefs. Though she was technically vulnerable, Six was able to wear her confidence like a suit of armor. She tried at every point she could to befriend them, to convince them that we were on their side. And eventually, she succeeded. Kind of. They trusted Boone and Six enough to get their guns and armor back, but not enough to set them free. They outfitted the both of them with bomb collars, which would detonate if they left the premises while wearing them or tried to force them off.

  
Boone didn’t say anything while he was in there, but he noticed that Six’s breathing sped up rapidly after the collars were put on. They were instructed to go get some NCR clown out of one of their bunkers, and the collars could be taken off. It sounded like an easy enough job, but for some reason, Boone thought Six looked like she was going to lose it. The Brotherhood folks didn’t notice it, but as soon as Six was out of the bunker and back into the Hidden Valley, she fell to her knees, tears welling up in her eyes.

  
“Uh, Six?” Boone asked.

  
“No. Not again. No! N-” Her hands flew up to her collar and began to pull and scratch and tug.

  
“Six! Don’t do that!” Boone ran over to Six, but she swatted him away to pull on her collar and scream as loudly as she could. Boone didn’t know how much stress the collars could take before they decided that the wearer was trying to take it off and blow up, but he didn’t want to find out. He rushed Six like a linebacker, taking a wrist in each hand and throwing her body farther and farther backwards until her back slammed into the metal bunker door.

  
“Six. You’re stronger than this. What the fuck is going on?” Boone asked, searching her eyes for answers. She wasn’t just crying anymore. She was sobbing. Tears veiled her eyes and reached down to make the pink parts of her cheeks even brighter. Boone had never seen her cry. Her eyes darted up to look at Boone’s behind his sunglasses. Her breathing slowed, and she nodded slowly. After a moment, Boone let go of her wrists and she sunk to her knees, breaking down in sobs.

  
“I’m sorry Boone, I just-” she interrupted herself with a sob. Boone said nothing, giving her time to say what she wanted to say.

  
“My Vacation. It wasn’t good, Boone. I went somewhere really fucked up and this guy put a collar on me just like this one. And there were three other people, and I had to keep them alive because if they died, their collars would blow up and mine would too.”

  
It’s the sort of thing Boone would normally dismiss as crazy talk. He probably wouldn’t have believed it if Six didn’t come home with that bright red ring around her neck, a ring that he noticed was now perfectly hidden by her new bomb collar. He wasn’t sure if he believed the whole thing. Ffor all he knows, Six was drugged and halucinating while she was collared, but he knew enough of it was true to really fuck a peson up- even a person as strong as Six.

  
“Listen to me, Six.” He said. “Breathe. Slowly. Alright. I know this sucks and I know you feel like some invisible thing is squeazing the life out of you right now, but you need to stand up straight. We have one quick thing to do, and the collars are off. If they don’t take the collars off after this, I’ll fight them myself until they do, and as long as you’re with me, you’ll never wear one of these ever again.”  
The words tumbled out of him like water from a cracked watering can

  
“...-I promise.”

  
This put Six off guard. Boone had never been so vulnerable with her. He had never promised her anything before, except to kill every Legion member he saw. This was a different kind of promise. It was a personal promise. Six didn’t know what to say.

  
“Okay.” She said. Boone stood up and offered his hand to Six so she could get up. In silence, they both headed to the bunker where they were told the NCR soldier was hiding out. Six spoke up just before she opened the door.

  
“Boone?”

  
“Yeah?'

  
“Thanks.”


	2. Honest Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Six decides to go on vacation when it seems like she's had enough of Boone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thanks for the kudos and such thus far! Sorry if I'm taking a bit of time. I'm playing through the game and the DLCs again to make sure I'm doing this correctly. 
> 
> I know that this part is a bit topical, but along with thanking y'all, I want to wish you a healthy quarantine. I hope you guys are staying safe and happy and healthy.
> 
> That's it! Have a good one, folks.

They didn’t find Deathclaws in Hidden Valley, but they did find them in Quarry Junction. They found an incredible amount of Deathclaws in Quarry Junction. They found so many Deathclaws in Quarry Junction, Boone actually felt considerably threatened for the first time in a long time. He didn’t really ‘get’ fear of death. To Boone, death was just where he was heading, and if he found it today or tomorrow or in five years, that’s when he found it. He felt that way ever since he saw Carla being sold. He was a murderer, just like everybody else in the goddamned desert. 

But anyways, he hadn’t felt close to death in a long time, but he felt it when he and Six were fighting those Deathclaws. The longer it went on, the more it… invigorated Six. She snuck around, taunted them, and spent energy cells like they were dollars at a strip club. When it appeared that they had cleared the Junction, Six howled in delight, sliding down one of the quarry lifts like a child. When Boone made it down there, she was still celebrating, and he’d be lying if he said that her excitement wasn’t a little infectious; Infectious enough to make him smile. When she had finished her parade around the quarry, she came around back towards Boone and gave him a punch on the shoulder.

“You should be celebrating too, you bastard! That was some of the best ranged work I’ve ever seen! Woo!” Suddenly, she froze. Her eyes darted around, as if she was wracking her brain over something. 

“Boone. The fun does not stop here tonight. Can you keep a secret?”

“Uh, I guess?” Boone responded, unsure of where this conversation was going.

“Okay. So before we met, I found this little shack in the middle of god knows where. It’s actually not that far from here. It’s filled with booze. I think it might have been a liquor store at some point. I told myself that I’d go back some other day; save it for a special occasion, you know? Well that, that right there, was special, and I think we’re deserving of a drink. You down?” Boone shrugged and nodded. 

“Yeah, I could go for a drink” He said, settling his gun strap over his shoulder. 

“Fantastic. Let’s go.” Six said, heading for the road, her ponytail energetically swinging from side to side with every step. 

Six wasn’t kidding when she said that the place was a little out of the way. If he had seen it on his own, he probably would have thought that it was a small generator house that someone forgot about years ago. The inside was pretty typical for a storefront. Old wood. Shelves practically falling off the walls. There was a bed and a fridge in there, for some reason. Mabe someone decided to hole themselves up there for a while. With how secluded this place was, it probably wasn’t a bad idea. One thing did stand out to Boone: There was no booze in sight.

“Uh, Six? You said there was booze?” He grumbled. Six waltzed across the creaky floorboards and floated to the fridge. 

“Oh? No Booze, you say?” She said, opening a fridge that was stocked to the brim with more than booze. Nuka Colas, Sarsaparillas, even just plain bottled water. Six took out two small bottles of whiskey and opened them both, passing one to Boone. After a moment, she raised her bottle. 

“To killing all of the Deathclaws and Legion scum we see-- and to being a pretty good team while we do it.” Six held her bottle high and took a big swig. After a moment, Boone raised his bottle and did the same, albeit not with the same energy. 

“Is something wrong?” Six asked, gesturing to his bottle. 

“Yeah-- I mean, no.” Boone sighed “I haven’t had a drink with another person in a long time. I was just thinking about it.” Six’s expression softened. She rooted around in her bag for something before fishing it out and offering the item, a pack of cigarettes, to Boone. He chuckled lightly before taking a cigarette out of the pack. 

“It’s been too long, then.” Six said. “Drink up, Boone. I want you nice and plastered when we arm wrestle.”

“I’m not going to arm wrestle.”

“Sure you will! Right after we share war stories.” Six said. Boone chuckled, louder this time. 

“You don’t have any war stories.”

“And there I am: Freshly sewn up after being shot in the head. I can barely hold a gun the right way and my only target practice thus far had been the geckos in the desert. All of a sudden, it’s up to me to keep an entire town from being invaded.” Six giggled, taking a puff out of a cigarette. 

“But you were just some asshole. What were you supposed to do about it?” Boone slurred, his bottle almost empty.

“I did what I could. I talked to everybody in this town, which was like, 4 people, and I helped them realize that they literally had everything to shoo the Gowder Pang- the Powger d- The dynamite assholes away. They were nice folks, but not too smart, I’d say. They literally had an explosives expert who didn’t want to use explosives at first.”

“Jesus.” Boone said.

“It’s not much of a ‘war story,’ and it definitely isn’t as interesting as what went down with Benny, but it’s literally the first thing I was tasked with doing after a robot pulled me from the grave. Like, I thought things couldn’t get any more batshit.” Boone grunted in agreement. He stood and walked to the fridge to get more whiskey while Six kept talking. 

“It’s not that hard anymore though. It was at first. It’s nice to have friends like you around. Even if you didn’t have a gun, I’d at least have someone to --” Six paused. “Oh! I didn’t mean friends. I mean companions. Partners. Acquaintances-with-guns.”

“Save it.” Boone said. “You can call me your friend, just not when you’re sober.” Six smiled.

“And for what it’s worth,” Boone said, pulling a larger bottle of whiskey from the fridge. “I don’t mind having you around, either.” He popped the lid off the bottle, losing track of what he was saying. “You’re clever. A good shot. And pretty--” Six put out her cigarette on the floorboards. Boone realized that he was saying something he would never say out loud, so he corrected himself.

“-Pretty annoying with how much you talk.”

“Would YOU say we’re friends?” Boone very obviously rolled his eyes under his sunglasses. 

“Sure.”

“That sounded insincere. Put the bottle down.” Boone turned to Six with a raised eyebrow and closed the fridge.

“Why?”

“Because we’re friends and we’re going to arm wrestle.” Six took off her jacket and pulled her hair out of its ponytail so it spilled over her shoulders. “C’mon. Let’s make a bet.”

“Like what?”

“If you win, we switch bags, and I’ll carry all of the heavy shit for a week.”

“I’m listening,”

“And when I win,” Six began “I get to wear your hat for a week.” Boone’s face flashed in appallment and he shook his head. 

“No.” He put the bottle on the ground between him and Six and sat down. 

“So you’re scared of me?” Six asked, stealing Boone’s bottle to take a sip for herself. 

“No, What?”

“If you weren’t scared of me, you’d arm wrestle me, since you don’t think I could win.” Boone smirked and pushed the bottle aside, putting his elbow down on the floor to replace it. 

“If we’re friends, I can’t have you holding a grudge against me.” Boone said, tilting his beret up and pulling his sunglasses down to look at Six. Her eyes widened wildly and she threw her arm down on the floor to lock it with Boone’s.

“Are you going to cry when I win?” Six asked. 

“No, but you might when you throw your back out trying to carry my stuff. On 3?” Boone sank down into his shoulders. He was positive he could beat Six, but admittedly, he’d have to actually try, and he wasn’t sure how much of an asset his inebriation would be in this scenario. 

“Okay. 1… 2… 3!” Six sounded off, immediately pumping her arm against Boone’s as forcefully as she could as fast as she could. Boone stiffened his arm to take the force and began to artfully push back. Boone was so focused on winning, he didn’t hear Six when she spoke up. When he didn’t answer her, she piped up again, louder this time. 

“Boone? Wow, you’re really popping a blood vessel to keep your arm up. Did you hear me?” Boone broke his intense concentration to look up at Six, who was smiling playfully. 

“What? No. I just don’t listen to you.” he said, tightening his grip around Six’s hand. 

“Oh, yeah, sure.” She said, staring at the two hands, struggling in different directions. After a few moments of thoughtful silence, she spoke up again. 

“I asked if you almost called me pretty back there. Did you?” Her eyes darted all around the inside of the shack. After a moment, her eyes finally came around to meet Boone’s, and her gaze softened. Even in the most hostile environment around, Six managed to retain some sort of softness normally reserved for girls who didn’t fight. Boone found himself lost in her sights while he tried to formulate an answer. 

“Uh,” He said. Now it was Boone’s turn to avoid eye contact. He took a deep breath and let it out. 

“Yeah. I called you pretty.” He said, grumbling it as if it was something he was ashamed to say. 

Thud. Boone’s hand hit the floorboards hard. His head snapped up, where Six was waiting with an evil smile. 

“I win, Boone. Hand it over.” Six began crawling towards him on all fours, cackling like she had just tricked the devil himself. 

“Nope. No deal.” Boone’s protests did nothing. Before he could back up, Six swiped his hat from his head and put it on her own. 

“Give it back.”

“I won, Boone! A deal’s a deal! PLUS you said I was pretty!” Six said, running to jump on the bed to taunt him. Through the alcohol and Six’s infectious smile, Boone couldn’t keep his wall up. He set his sunglasses on one of the broken shelves. 

“If you don’t hand it over, I’m going to take it from you.” Six, instead of using her words to respond, just blew a raspberry at him as an invitation. 

Boone chased six around and around the small shack, which was harder than he thought it would be. Even when she was drunk, she was a fast little thing, and she was extra motivated to keep Boone’s beret on her head for as long as she possibly could. Eventually, she tired out, and slowed down enough where Boone was able to nab her and pin her against the wall, with one hand on either side of her body.

As soon as he realized what he had done, he froze. Through the haze of lighthearted drinking, Boone felt the tone of the room shift. Everything suddenly felt heavier and slower. 

He had Six pinned against the wall, and she… didn’t mind. She looked like she didn’t mind. Her head was tilted up and she was no longer trying to escape. Six bit her lip. She tentatively moved a hand to Boone’s waist. For a moment, Boone could hear his heart beating in his ears, and Six’s heart beating in his years, and the wind outside, and every little noise in that little shack all at the same time. Was he… nervous?

Boone took a small breath and raised his hand to Six’s neck. Six didn’t notice, but he saw that his hand was shaking before softly landing on the base of her neck. 

“Boone?” Six asked quietly. Boone nodded his head to show that he was listening. 

“You know how you said I was pretty?” Boone nodded again. Six took a deep breath

“Well, I think you’re handsome.” Boone smiled softly. His stomach twisted in on itself. He hadn’t felt like this in years. Was Boone… scared? After years of facing the biggest threats in the Mojave, was Six the thing to break him?

After several moments of silence, Six leaned forward, cradling her arms behind Boone’s neck. Boone felt like he couldn’t move. It had been so long since he had been this close with anybody. He almost didn’t know what to do. However, Six did. She used her locked wrists to pull Boone forward and down, until their faces were centimeters apart. Boone swallowed, and brought his lips to Six’s. Somehow, after hauling ass through the wastes for months, Six’s lips were still soft and smooth. They reminded Boone of the petals that would occasionally bloom on the cactus flowers when the weather was nice. Six took her arms down from his neck to wrap her arms around his waist and pull him in closer. It was a sweet kiss, deep enough that Boone could taste the ashes of the cigarette Six had just snuffed out. At the same time, it didn’t cross the line into blind lust, just kissing him because he was there and she wanted something. Six was absolutely hammered, but her actions were sincere.

When they seperated, Six rested her forehead on Boone’s chest and swayed in the silence of the desert shack. After a few moments, Six looked back up at Boone with glowing doe eyes. 

“Boone, what would you call me? What am I to you?”

And in an instant, all he could see was Carla’s face. The adoration oozing from her voice. The awe in her gaze. The tone in her voice as she asked the question, always wanting to lead instead of follow. His stomach went from being filled with butterflies to being filled with bees, tumbling one after the other, making him feel sick and guilty for even thinking that there would ever be someone out there for him who wasn’t Carla. For thinking that he deserved to seek out his own happiness after delivering Carla to the other side, where she wouldn’t have been if he just hadn’t joined the NCR like she wanted in the first place. But no. Boone’s selfishness made him responsible in more ways than one for the death of his wife. In Boone’s eyes, he was a murderer whose crimes would catch up with him one day. Love, or whatever this was with Six, was never supposed to come to him. He hesitated for a moment, the haze of whiskey and regret clouding his brain’s ability to form sentences. 

“We’re friends.” he said, awkwardly pressing his lips together. Six faltered and took a step back. 

“Oh,” she said, obviously a bit confused. “Alright.”

Six decided to drop it, understanding the context of the situation.

“That’s alright. Hey Boone, I think I’m pretty spent. I’m going to go to bed, okay?” SIx turned to inspect the queen sized mattress in the corner.

“Looks like we should both be able to sleep here. God, after seeing so many bedrolls in the bunkers back at Camp McCarran, it’s nice to find a real, big, bed, right? The folks in New Vegas probably sleep on beds as big as this one every night. Probably bigger. I’ll move over for you-” 

“No.” Boone said. “I’m fine. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

For a second, Six looked mildly heartbroken, sitting down on the bed and peering down at her lap, as if she had done something to upset him. In a quick moment, she shook it off.

“Right. Sure. I can see how that could be more comfortable for you. Alright. See you in the morning.” Six said, sinking deeper into the mattress. Boone took out the lantern they had been using for a light and stretched himself out on the floor next to the farthest wall from Six. 

Boone did not sleep.

All night, all he could do was sit and think about Six and Carla and how Boone wasn’t supposed to care about anyone anymore. At least, not like that. He told Carla that if he died while fighting for the NCR, that he wanted her to remarry. He couldn’t imagine her living out the rest of her life without some sort of heart or companionship, but Boone was not nearly as kind to himself. 

When the morning came, Six woke up to Boone with his armor and beret back on, cleaning out his gun. 

“Morning! Jeez. I think I’m hungover. I’ve got a killer headache. How about you?”

“No.” Boone said, without looking away from his gun. Six got dressed while Boone finished, and when he began to put it away, Six approached him. 

“Hey Boone. I wanted to talk about last night. I’m sorry if things got out of hand.” 

“Yeah.”

“I just wanted to let you know that I know what happened was sudden, and if you don’t think it was a good idea that’s fine by me, but-”

“Exactly. We work best as colleagues. Friendships and personal attachments just make our job harder.” Six looked as if Boone had suckerpunched her. 

“What?”

“This ‘friends’ stuff. It gets in the way. The arm wrestling. The stories. They were fun, but we need to focus on the job at hand.” Six’s eyes furrowed, looking at Boone like he was an amnesiac, leaving out certain significant events that occured the night before.   
“What about you and me? You know, when we…”

“That was definitely a mistake.” Boone said, putting in an effort to avoid eye contact with Six. Six’s face fell, and this time, she wasn’t going to hide it. 

“What? Was it me? Did I come on too strong? Did I make you uncomfortable?”

“No. I’m just not yours to have. I’m not anybody’s. It was a giant mistake and I’d like to pretend that it never happened, which is the next best thing to taking it back. We work together. That’s it.” Boone grunted. Six seemed lost in her own galaxy of thoughts. After some time, her face hardened. 

“Okay, Boone. We can pretend like last night never happened. I just didn’t realize acting like a human being would kill you. My mistake.” SIx started gathering her things furiously.

“Six, don’t be dramatic-”

“I’m not being dramatic, or if I am, I don’t care. I didn’t even care if you liked me after kissing me. I understand how you can regret something like that-- but we were friends, Boone. You cannot just retract when you start having fun to remind yourself that you think you’re supposed to be sad. That doesn't just hurt you, Boone. It hurts m-” she stopped, realizing that she had become too fiery. She grabbed a bag and slung it over her shoulder. 

“Whatever. Let’s head out.” Boone could feel his heart twisting upon itself, but he just nodded and saddled up to leave. 

Boone never thought that he would miss Six’s commentary, but he did. She wouldn’t speak to him for three days unless she was telling him to flank an enemy or to stay put. She didn’t ask questions. She didn’t offer commentary. Hell, she wouldn’t even tell him why they were going to a certain area half the time. He just followed her blindly, and while he suggested that this was the arrangement he’d prefer, he knew that this wasn’t it, because Six wasn’t Six. With any other person, this was Boone’s ideal, but when he was with Six, the silence felt uncomfortable, disheartening, and even boring. 

He wondered how Six could stand it.

Evidently, she couldn’t. One day, while Boone and Six were cleaning up camp, she turned to him and told him that she needed to be alone. 

“I’m going on a vacation.” She said. “There’s only one spot in the caravan.” Boone noticed that Six hadn’t told him to go back to Novac and wait for him. 

“When are you leaving?” he asked, in a small attempt to spur on conversation.

“If I head there now I should be able to get there by tonight.” 

“I’ll join you there, in case you run into a Legion hunting party or something. After you join the caravan, I’ll head back to Novac.” Six went to say something, and shrugged it off instead. In silence, they both packed their things and headed to the Northern Passage.

They managed to get there without much trouble. They ran into a singular fiend on the way there, but Boone made short work of him. Once they reached the cave where the Happy Trails Caravan company was located, they stopped. 

“Alright, Boone. Well, thanks for walking me up here.” She did not say when she would be back, or if she would see him again. She nodded at him and turned to enter the cave. 

“Six!” Boone said, jogging after her. She turned to him without saying anything. Boone took his beret off of his head and held it out in offering to Six. She tilted her head. 

“You won, fair and square. Take it with you. Return it to me when you come home.” Six began to protest, but Boone pushed the beret into her hands. 

“Just take it.” Six held it in her hands, wordlessly inspecting the beret. She was not smiling. Boone nodded at her one last time, grumbling a short ‘goodbye’ before turning around and beginning the trek to Novac. 

Before he turned, Boone could have sworn that he saw tears in Six’s eyes. After a few minutes, he realized that they may have been in his, too. 

Six was gone for weeks on weeks on weeks on weeks. At the end of a month, Boone started to believe that she wouldn’t be back. He didn’t know if she had died, or if she just didn’t care to see him again and return his hat. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t really matter in the end to Boone, because no matter the case, Boone recognized that it was his fault. If she was dead, it’s because he pushed her away into a situation she could not handle alone. If she never wanted to see him again, there wasn’t much he could do about that. 

Still, Boone lived every day like Six was going to be back. He cleaned his gun, he sat in the nest of the dinosaur, and he tried not to think about what what Six would look like when she came back. The last time she returned from a ‘vacation,’ it hadn’t been a pretty sight, but now, in the cool quiet of Dinky’s mouth, he could only imagine her as a pretty sight. He thought about the desert wind throwing her ponytail around, her electric enthusiasm letting loose every time she was in a gunfight, and the endless sense of adventure she possessed, even when adventure betrayed her. He thought about what it would feel like to look through his scope and see her walking into town, a smile on her face and a hand in the air, waving at Boone.

Boone had never thought about so much, and he hated it. 

Every time he thought about Six, his stomach filled with butterflies of sentimentality and rocks of guilt. So, naturally, he did everything he could to stop thinking about her. Eventually, he started thinking about Carla.

While Boone had told Carla that he wanted her to remarry in the case that he died, he would never entertain the notion that she could die first. While they never discussed it, he knew she never would have wanted him doing this, cutting himself off from everyone else, depriving himself of life’s satisfactions. She always told him that the NCR was a drag, and that there was more to life than Novac, which, in a way, reminded him of Six. It dawned on him that Six and Carla probably would have been friends. They were both loud, stubborn, and… fun. 

Carla wouldn’t be happy, Six wasn’t happy, Boone wasn’t happy. 

Boone was laying in his bed, tracing the water damage lines on the ceiling with his eyes. Was he wrong? Would it really be a sin to tell Six that she was his closest friend, his only friend? Could it be that feelings weren’t a luxury like he thought, but compulsory. The thought shook him. If you couldn’t shake feelings, if they were uncontrollable, and not something you could easily suppress, then Boone hadn’t felt anything like this in…

Well, it had been a while. 

Just before drifting to sleep that night, Boone swore to himself that if Six ever came back, he’d tell her, and if she didn’t, well...

He guessed that meant he realized some things a little too late. 

Boone woke up that evening and got ready to switch shifts with Vargas at the Dino. For the first time in weeks, he had slept like someone knocked him out, so waking up had been a bit of a slog. He trudged into the dinosaur and up into the nest, where Vargas was waiting with his sniper set on the horizon. 

“You’re good to go,” Boone said, setting his bag down. His head turned back, revealing that it was not Manny Vargas stationed at the dinosaur, but Six. 

“What?” Six said, peering back “But I just got here.” Boone was shaken in his confusion. In the darkness of the evening and with his beret on her head, he assumed that she was Vargas. 

“Six? You’re back.” His mouth hung open, but he couldn’t think of anything else to say. Six got up and turned to Boone, taking the beret off her head and handing it to him. 

“A deal’s a deal. I promised to return this, though, it’s been a little longer than a week.” 

Boone looked from the beret to Six, wordless.

“There might be some sand in it. Utah has a lot of bright red sand, but otherwise it should be ok-” Boone interrupted by reaching out to the arm holding the beret and grabbing it by the wrist, using it to pull her into an incredibly tight hug. 

“Uh, Boone?” Six said, unmoving, not returning the hug. 

“Six, I’m. I-” He sighed. 

“I was wrong. We’re friends. You’re my best friend. And I-” Boone had to catch his breath. He wasn’t used to speaking with this much vulnerability. 

“I don’t regret kissing you. I liked kissing you.”

He let go of Six. They stood in silence. Looking at each other in the desert twilight. 

“I’d like to do it again,” he said. Six’s chest swelled in a deep breath. She looked from Boone down to his beret, furrowing her brows. 

“I thought you weren’t anyone’s to have?” She asked, not looking up. 

“I was wrong. I was somebody’s once, and I was hung up on her. After you left, I realized that being happy ain’t a sin. I still don’t think there are good things waiting for me when I die, but I don’t have to be sad while I’m here.” Six looked up, somewhat surprised. 

“I also missed you like crazy. You’re annoying and loud, but I’m not happy when you’re not around.” Boone hesitated. “I can be yours, unless, uh.” he lost steam, and decided to leave it there. Thankfully, Six knew what he meant, and it was her turn to pull Boone into a hug. He pressed her close to him, and cherished the warmth of her breath on his chest. He wasn’t afraid. Not this time. 

He tipped her chin up to him with his hand to look her in the eyes. She smiled, and raised an eyebrow. 

“One sec,” She said, taking the beret from her hand and placing it back on Boone’s head. 

“Much better.” Boone chuckled and pulled her in to kiss her. He noticed as they kissed that Six sustained some sort of cut on her lip, but it didn’t matter. Somehow, they were still as soft as ever. Her two hands flew up to cradle Boone’s face as they kissed. Boone threw his hands around her back and picked her up. He turned around and pressed her back against the door to the nest, holding her body so close to his that he pinned her to the door, keeping her feet a few inches from the ground. Boone used his hands to pin Six’s hair behind her ears. He smirked. 

“So, how was the vacation?” Six giggled, eyeing Boone’s lips while biting her own.

“How about I tell you over dinner?” She said. “I’m busy right now.”

“Fine by me.” Boone said, holding her smooth cheeks in his two hands as they kissed again. 

For the first time in a very long time, Boone felt nothing but happy. 

And oh how good it felt.


End file.
